The Future of Draught Burners

Steve O’Neill, Technical Specifications Engineer at EOGB Energy Products Ltd, focuses on energy efficiency in non-domestic buildings and how forced draught burners still play a role in reducing emissions…

Besides the automotive, steel and power generating industries, the provision of heating and hot water in commercial and non-domestic buildings is possibly the largest energy consumer across Europe.

Heating and hot water generation can be accountable for approximately 50% of the energy consumption within non-domestic buildings and is therefore accountable for its resultant greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.

Energy savings

In October 2009 the EU introduced directive 2009/125/EC, with the aim of achieving a 20% reduction in carbon emissions by the year 2020.

The ErPD (Energy Related Products Directive), which came into force in September 2015, requires manufacturers of energy-related products to meet minimum energy performance criteria and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions. These standards apply to equipment designed for the heating of hot water and the heating of commercial/non-domestic buildings with a heat output of up to and including 400kW.

EU prognosticators forecast that by introducing such measures to drive up efficiencies, the 20% target will be achieved. As a result this will be conducive in reducing harmful emissions being emitted into the atmosphere.

This directive is going to have a significant and deleterious impact on some HVAC and process manufacturers as it can mean completely rethinking the direction in which a company must go to retain its position in the future market place. This is particularly true for manufacturers of forced draught burners.

Burners

A burner is a device which enables a chemical reaction between a fuel and an oxidizing agent to take place in a controlled environment. The burner acts as a means of stabilising the flame and controlling the intermixing of the combustion air and fuel.

Early burners were used to burn wood or solid fuel and it was discovered that altering the air to the burner could allow greater control of the flame and its temperature. It is this concept that is manipulated to enable us to control a flame and design equipment to suit a prescribed application.

Furthermore, this is known to be one of the fundamental techniques in improving the efficiency of the combustion process and one which consequently enables us to have an impact on the quantity and type of emissions being released into the atmosphere.

In order to fully consider the future of a specific type of burner it is necessary to consider what a burner is designed to do. A burner’s controlled heat release allows heat distribution, which can be applied to different functions varying from domestic cooking to industrial processes.

Fully pre-mixed flame

With this type of burner, all the combustion air is provided as primary air and they are commonly known as pre-mix burners.

Air under pressure (about 70mbar) entrains low-pressure gas. As the air pressure is increased it becomes easier to achieve near stoichiometric combustion due to the air for combustion being delivered direct to the burner producing a short, lean and intense flame.

As all of the air for combustion is pre-mixed with the fuel prior to combustion taking place, this increases the burning velocity and consequently produces a smaller, more compact high-temperature flame than that of an atmospheric burner.

The increased burning velocity reduces the time for the combustion process to complete, allowing for more fresh mixture to be introduced to the burner. This increased burning velocity allows for a greater energy release per unit time.

The smaller flame produced is due to the fact that it does not have an outer mantle, which can be advantageous as the combustion chamber can be made physically smaller reducing the risk of flame impingement.

This type of burner allows for simple self-proportioning by mechanical means of adjusting airflow (damper) or by utilizing air/gas ratio valves (sometimes both).

Forced draught burners

With forced draught burners the fuel and air do not mix until they enter the burner head. This technique is applied for both liquid and gaseous fuels to great effect.

Both oxidizer and fuel are generally delivered to the burner head at pressure, which provides turbulent mixing of the fuel and oxidizer. The benefit of turbulent mixing is enhanced flame stability and it also increases the surface area of the flame front.

The increased surface area allows for a greater quantity of fuel to be burned per unit time than that of a laminar flame usually promoted in atmospheric and fully pre-mixed flames.

This type of burner can be set up to burn with either excess air or fuel depending on application. The rapid mixing process results in maximum heat release rates and short flames.

Nozzle mixing burners are used on all types of high temperature operations such as metal melting furnaces, heat treatment furnaces and in general where rapid heating is required.

The future of forced draught burners

Although the ErPD appears to prefer the fully condensing pre-mix burner for the provision of heat and hot water generation for commercial and non-domestic buildings, a need still exists for forced draught burners.

Compared to pre-mix, forced draught burners are more diverse as they are compatible with a wider range of applications. They will also always be a required for a number of industrial applications. With correct matching, forced draught burners can achieve the same efficiency as pre-mix burners, and even more with the addition of technology such as O2 and CO trim.

A lot of the efficiency from forced draught burners is lost in maintaining higher stack temperatures to prevent condensation forming inside a boiler that is not designed to dispose of it. In this situation it is normally possible for the burner to offer a greater turndown ratio than that which the boiler is designed to cope with.

Overall, both types of burner can offer optimum efficiency towards the application that they are designed for, irrespective of heat output. A more significant consideration is to ensure the appliance and its ancillary equipment are designed, specified, installed and commissioned correctly to suit the application.

The need for a wide variety of different burner types still exists and it is the application that will ultimately dictate the type of burner that is required.

Privacy Policy

General Statement

EOGB Energy Products Ltd collects and processes personal information, or data, relating to anybody that has interacted with EOGB or its website to manage the working relationship. This personal information may be held by the Company on paper or in electronic format.

The Company is committed to being transparent about how it handles your personal information, to protect the privacy and security of your personal information and meet its data protection obligations under the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and the Data Protection Act 2018. The purpose of this privacy notice is to make you aware of how and why we will collect and use your personal information both during and after your interaction with the Company. We are required under the GDPR to notify you of the information contained in this privacy notice.

Any questions you have in relation to this policy or how we use your personal data should be sent to info@eogb.co.uk or addressed to The Data Protection Officer, EOGB, 5 Howard Road, Eaton Socon, St Neots, Cambs. PE19 8ET.

Data protection principles

Under the GDPR, there are six data protection principles that the Company must comply with. These provide that the personal information we hold about you must be:

Processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner.

Collected only for legitimate purposes that have been clearly explained to you and not further processed in a way that is incompatible with those purposes.

Adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to those purposes.

Accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date.

Kept in a form which permits your identification for no longer than is necessary for those purposes.

Processed in a way that ensures appropriate security of the data.

The Company is responsible for, and must be able to demonstrate compliance with, these principles. This is called accountability.

What types of personal information do we collect about you?

Personal information is any information about an individual from which that person can be directly or indirectly identified.

The Company can collect, use and processes a range of personal information about you. This includes (as applicable):

The Company may also collect, use and process the following special categories of your personal information (as applicable):

information about your health, including any medical condition, whether you have a disability in respect of which the Company needs to make reasonable adjustments

information about criminal convictions and offences.

We will also collect additional personal information throughout the period of your working relationship with us. Whilst some of the personal information you provide to us is mandatory and/or is a statutory or contractual requirement, some of it you may be asked to provide to us on a voluntary basis. We will inform you whether you are required to provide

certain personal information to us or if you have a choice in this. You will be advised if information collected is mandatory or voluntary.

Your personal information may be stored in different places, including as a paper record or in the IT systems.

Accidents or incidents

If an accident or incident occurs on our property, at one of our training courses or involving one of our staff then we’ll keep a record of this (which may include personal data and sensitive personal data).

Why and how do we use your personal information?

We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to. These are known as the legal bases for processing. We will use your personal information in one or more of the following circumstances:

enter into, or perform, a contract with you

receiving payment (e.g. direct debits, credit and debit cards);

maintaining databases of our customers;

performing our obligations under training renewal dates

fulfilling orders for goods or services

helping us respect your choices and preferences (e.g. if you ask not to receive marketing material, we’ll keep a record of this).

Internal research and analysis

comply with a legal duty

protect your vital interests

for our own (or a third party’s) lawful interests, provided your rights don’t override the these.

In any event, we’ll only use your information for the purpose or purposes it was collected for

We may also occasionally use your personal information where we need to protect your vital interests (or someone else’s vital interests).

We need all the types of personal information listed under “What types of personal information do we collect about you?” primarily to enable us to perform our contract with you and to enable us to comply with our legal obligations. In some cases, we may also use your personal information where it is necessary to pursue our legitimate interests (or those of a third party), provided that your interests or your fundamental rights and freedoms do not override our interests. Our legitimate interests include: performing or exercising our obligations or rights under the direct relationship that exists between the Company and you as its employee, worker or contractor; pursuing our business by employing (and rewarding) employees, workers and contractors; performing effective internal administration and ensuring the smooth running of the business; ensuring the security and effective operation of our systems and network; protecting our confidential information; and conducting due diligence on employees, workers and contractors. We believe that you have a reasonable expectation, as our employee, worker or contractor, that we will process your personal information.

What if you fail to provide personal information?

If you fail to provide certain mandatory personal information when requested or required, we may not be able to perform the contract we have entered into with you, or we may be prevented from complying with our legal obligations. You may also be unable to exercise your statutory or contractual rights.

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it. If we need to use your personal information for a purpose other than that for which it was collected, we will provide you, prior to that further processing, with information about the new purpose, we will explain the legal basis which allows us to process your personal information for the new purpose and we will provide you with any relevant further information. We may also issue a new privacy notice to you.

Who has access to your personal information?

Your personal information may be shared internally within the Company, the Company may also share your personal information with other third parties in the context of a potential sale or restructuring of some or all its business. In those circumstances, your personal information will be subject to confidentiality undertakings.

We may also need to share your personal information with a regulator or to otherwise comply with the law.

We may share your personal information with third parties where it is necessary to administer the contract we have entered into with you, where we need to comply with a legal obligation, or where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party).

How does the Company protect your personal information?

The Company has put in place measures to protect the security of your personal information. It has internal policies, procedures and controls in place to try and prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost or destroyed, altered, disclosed or used or accessed in an unauthorised way. In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those employees, workers, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know in order to perform their job duties and responsibilities. You can obtain further information about these measures from our data protection officer.

Where your personal information is shared with third-party service providers, we require all third parties to take appropriate technical and organisational security measures to protect your personal information and to treat it subject to a duty of confidentiality and in accordance with data protection law. We only allow them to process your personal information for specified purposes and in accordance with our written instructions and we do not allow them to use your personal information for their own purposes.

The Company also has in place procedures to deal with a suspected data security breach and we will notify the Information Commissioner’s Office (or any other applicable supervisory authority or regulator) and you of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.

For how long does the Company keep your personal information?

The Company will only retain your personal information for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected and processed, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, tax, health and safety, reporting or accounting requirements.

The Company will generally hold your personal information for the duration of your employment or engagement. The exceptions are:

Legal requirement with our regulatory bodies for up to 6 years to protect against legal risk, e.g. if they could be relevant to a possible legal claim in a tribunal, County Court or High Court.

Personal information which is no longer to be retained will be securely and effectively destroyed or permanently erased from our IT systems and we will also require third parties to destroy or erase such personal information where applicable.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal information so that it no longer permits your identification. In this case, we may retain such information for a longer period.

Your rights in connection with your personal information

As a data subject, you have a number of statutory rights. Subject to certain conditions, and in certain circumstances, you have the right to:

request access to your personal information - this is usually known as making a data subject access request and it enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it

request rectification of your personal information - this enables you to have any inaccurate or incomplete personal information we hold about you corrected

request the erasure of your personal information - this enables you to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where there’s no compelling reason for its continued processing, e.g. it’s no longer necessary in relation to the purpose for which it was originally collected

restrict the processing of your personal information - this enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal information, e.g. if you contest its accuracy and so want us to verify its accuracy

object to the processing of your personal information - this enables you to ask us to stop processing your personal information where we are relying on the legitimate interests of the business as our legal basis for processing and there is something relating to your particular situation which makes you decide to object to processing on this ground

data portability - this gives you the right to request the transfer of your personal information to another party so that you can reuse it across different services for your own purposes.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact our data protection Officer. In the limited circumstances where you have provided your consent to the processing of your personal information for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. This will not, however, affect the lawfulness of processing based on your consent before its withdrawal. If you wish to withdraw your consent, please contact our data protection officer. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your personal information for the purpose you originally agreed to, unless we have another legal basis for processing.

If you believe that the Company has not complied with your data protection rights, you have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at any time. The ICO is the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues.

Transferring personal information outside the European Economic Area

The Company will not transfer your personal information to countries outside the European Economic Area.

Disclosing and Sharing data

We will never sell your personal data. If you have opted-in to marketing, we may contact you with information about our partners, or third party products and services, but these communications will always come from EOGB and are usually incorporated into our own marketing materials (e.g. advertisements in magazines or newsletters).

We may share personal data with subcontractors or suppliers who provide us with services. For example, if you order something from EOGB, your name and address will be shared with the delivery company. However, these activities will be carried out under a contract which imposes strict requirements on our supplier to keep your information confidential and secure.

Marketing

We use personal data to communicate with people and to promote EOGB. This includes keeping you up to date with our news, updates, campaigns and training information EOGB will now ask you to “opt-in” for most communications. This includes all our marketing communications. This means you’ll have the choice as to whether you want to receive these messages and be able to select how you want to receive them (post, phone, email, text).

You can decide not to receive communications or change how we contact you at any time. If you wish to do so please contact us by emailing info@eogb.co.uk, writing to EOGB 5 Howard Road, Eaton Socon, St Neots, Cambs. PE19 8ET or telephoning 01480 477066 (Lines open 8.30am – 4.30pm, Mon – Fri).

CCTV

Some of our premises have CCTV and you may be recorded when you visit them. CCTV is there to help provide security and to protect both you and EOGB. CCTV will only be viewed when necessary (e.g. to detect or prevent crime) and footage is only stored temporarily. Unless it is flagged for review CCTV will be recorded over.

EOGB complies with the Information Commissioner’s Office CCTV Code of Practice, and we put up notices so you know when CCTV is in use.

Storage

EOGB’s operations are based in the UK and we store our data within the European Union. Some organisations which provide services to us may transfer personal data outside of the EEA, but we’ll only allow them to do if your data is adequately protected.

Cookies

Our website uses local storage (such as cookies) to provide you with the best possible experience and to allow you to make use of certain functionality.(Please see our cookie policy)

Links to other sites

Our website contains hyperlinks to many other websites. We are not responsible for the content or functionality of any of those external websites (but please let us know if a link is not working by using the 'Contact us' link).

If an external website requests personal information from you (e.g. in connection with an order for goods or services), the information you provide will not be covered by the EOGB's Privacy Policy. We suggest you read the privacy policy of any website before providing any personal information.

When purchasing goods or services from any of the businesses that our site links to, you will be entering into a contract with them (agreeing to their terms and conditions) and not with EOGB.

Changes to this privacy notice

The Company reserves the right to update or amend this privacy notice at any time, including where the Company intends to further process your personal information for a purpose other than that for which the personal information was collected or where we intend to process new types of personal information. We will issue you with a new privacy notice when we make significant updates or amendments. We may also notify you about the processing of your personal information in other ways.

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More Information

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